Realms of the Gods (The Immortals Series #4) Book

This wasn't supposed to be the next book I finished. I was planning to get through Eulalia! first, but I woke up one morning and rolled over and grabbed this one for no good reason except it's easier to read paperbacks than hardbacks when you're lying on your side because you don't want to get up, and also because your cat is sitting on your hip.

Anyhow. That was yesterday. I think I read five chapters or so before breakfast. And then I had to face the truth: I'm addicted to these books. I crave them when I am not reading them. When I am, I need more more more all the time. If there was a way to inject them straight into my brain every now and again I would probably do it. Reading them is the closest I'll ever get to being well and truly high.

This is not my favorite installment, but it has some of my favorite moments. Shipping moments, naturally. Seriously, every time Daine and Numair start kissing a part of me goes "OKAY STOP THE PLOT AND JUST KEEP MAKING OUT FOR THE REST OF THE BOOK KTHX". (And they exchange a lot of saliva, so this happens fairly often.) This is the book in which Tamora Pierce proves that romance is better when it's drawn out slowly over an entire quartet, because by the time you get here every tense moment between the two of them sends shivers down your spine and it's far, far, far more electric than any one-book instamance.

One of my favorite bits:

"Of all the times for him to go protective on me. Maybe he ate something that was bad for him." She closed her eyes.
"Maybe he loves you," Broad Foot said.
She didn't hear. She was already asleep.

(Daine is so clueless about the whole thing that it's kind of hilarious. Also, you have to feel sorry for Numair.)

'Falling' is probably my favorite chapter of the whole quartet.



Okay, but moving on. There are other things to recommend this book. For one thing, Pierce is really, really, really good at humanizing the gods. For another, there are dragons! And perhaps most importantly, this is where we get the origin story of the Stormwings. I'm not going to give you any more detail about those things, though, because that could be spoilers. What I will say is that I love how the Stormwings are made more sympathetic over the course of the book, to the point that by the end of this one you feel like you understand them and, in some cases, even like them. (Now what I really want to know is what sick person dreamed up spidrens.)

The climactic battle is not nearly as good as that of Emperor Mage, but there are enough other delicious scenes that it's all worth it.

Also, I'm fairly convinced that Gainel, the god of dreams, is a combination of Neil Gaiman and his character Morpheus.

For those familiar with the Lioness Quartet and the Beka Cooper books, there's a brief cameo by someone present in both series, if you're watching carefully. (I eagerly await the day when we find out what the heck he is and why he adopts humans the way he does. If we ever do, which I suppose we may not. Damn cat.)

Anyhow, this quartet. If you haven't read it, you should really make it a priority. They don't make YA like this any more.